Living Dangerously: Confronting Insecurity, Navigating Risk, and Negotiating Livelihoods in the Hidden Economy of Congo’s Cannabis Trade
Fiche du document
13 juillet 2019
Ce document est lié à :
info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1963-1197
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ , info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Mots-clés
Narratives surrounding the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s rich natural resource base have been largely attentive to the way that resources shape the enduring violence in the region. Current policies regarding Congo’s cannabis trade which advocate for its continued prohibition exemplify such framings. Drawing on over sixteen months of qualitative fieldwork with those engaged in the production and trade of the drug this paper presents a direct challenge to the narrative of violence delinquency and greed that currently foregrounds most discussions of Congo’s cannabis economy. It reframes the cannabis trade as a response to Congo’s landscape of insecurity rather than a symptom of it. It offers evidence of how it is rather the plant’s illegality and the extra-legal networks its illegality engenders that are shaping the terms of this dangerous trade. In so doing this paper seeks to confront how we understand the very terms of risk and insecurity as played out in the day-to-day lives of those who navigate through the hidden economy of Congo’s cannabis trade.Sujets proches
Trade Commercial trade Foreign trade Trade TradeCiter ce document
Ann Laudati, « Living Dangerously: Confronting Insecurity, Navigating Risk, and Negotiating Livelihoods in the Hidden Economy of Congo’s Cannabis Trade », EchoGéo, ID : 10.4000/echogeo.17676
Métriques
Partage / Export
Résumé
Introduction A middle-aged Congolese man stands in front of one of several of his shambas located deep in the Moyens Plateaux of the DRC’s South Kivu Province. Vibrant green foliage largely dominated by a single plant species, surrounds and almost overwhelms the slight stature of the man. The man holds a wad of cash, intentionally fanned out to the viewer as evidence of the financial benefits the farmer reaps from the production of the crop he currently stands in front of, a calculated answer...